Magnesium Rechargeable Battery Will Have Longer Life

Researchers have found out that magnesium rechargeable battery will have a longer shelf life than other rechargeable batteries in the market. A battery that is made of magnesium or iodine will also be faster to charge so it will be cost effective.

Magnesium cathode and iodine anode were mixed to make the magnesium rechargeable battery. It is the newest innovated technology that is made for rechargeable batteries. The magnesium batteries were made by Chunsheng Wang, a Professor within the UMD Department of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering, together with his team. He and his team think that the potential of this type of battery is better than the ones in the market. It has a higher energy density, which is about 10 times more than the current rechargeable batteries, ECN reported.

Watch video

"Our mission is to make rechargeable batteries that are cheaper, recharge faster and last longer than what is currently available to consumers," said ChBE Ph.D. Candidate Tao Gao. "Research of magnesium battery has been ongoing for the last decade, and one of the biggest challenges is decreasing the recharge time, to hours, rather than days," he added. The research, titled "High power rechargeable magnesium/iodine battery chemistry," was published in "Nature Communications" on January 10, 2017.

The team of scientists has chosen iodine because it is soluble. After discharge, iodine becomes solid unlike the current rechargeable battery in the market, lithium-ion. Iodine also has a faster reaction as it has two phases, liquid to solid, Phys.org said. The research has shown that the magnesium rechargeable battery can be charged with just five short minutes. It is very significant for the energy and battery part of research and science, said Gao.

Hopefully, the next generation of rechargeable batteries like this magnesium rechargeable battery will change how batteries are used and consumed, explained Gao. The new battery chemistry will definitely increase the battery life and it will lessen the cost that people will make as it is very much cheaper. Currently, the team is testing the battery in different conditions. They want to know its reaction to different types of weather conditions.